


Connect the Muggle way.

by Mrs_Poncey



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Boys Kissing, Drunken Orgy, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Muggle Studies, Multi, Other, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-War, Rebuilding, Sarcastic Draco Malfoy, Sarcastic Harry Potter, Secret Love Confession, Sex, Sexual Experimentation, Wizard Studies, muggle music
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 15:46:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12391206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrs_Poncey/pseuds/Mrs_Poncey
Summary: When Harry left the Wizarding world, he had no intention to return. However, two years after the war, a Hogwarts owl with a letter finds Harry in muggle Barcelona.Hogwarts is ready to open it's doors again, with a new plan for students who want to finish their education.An apprehensive Harry accepts but soon learns Hogwarts, under Headmistress McGonagall, is nothing like he expected it to be. Harry and the other eight years wonder, why is there suddenly a pet dragon called Mushu and when did McGonagall become so positively Slytherin?





	Connect the Muggle way.

**Author's Note:**

> It has been years sins I wrote fanfiction, but when the bug bits... what can I say. ;) I feel rusty in my writing; it might haggle a bit the first chapters.  
> This story will be a long, crazy ride. I can't tell yet how many chapters this story will have, but it won't be short.  
> Happy reading!

 

Harry looked up at the castle, that was both his first home and the destruction of his soul, with squinted eyes. It had taken two full years of work, way longer than most expected, but there it stood again. Rebuilt to a near copy of the original building. The difference, he noticed, is the new tower added to the back of the great hall. It was higher than all the others and instead of a pointed roof, an enormous glass dome perched on the top. Harry's eyebrow lifted as he regarded it. It looked out of place, its bright diamond hue painted over with the orange of the setting sun. However, he came here to witness the new school, not to dwindle outside its gates, so Harry took a deep breath.

The smell of damp rotting leaves hit him, and he automatically took a step back, Harry's eyes fell closed at a flashback of the forbidden forest and poisoned green of the killing curse burning his chest. Freezing in his footsteps, fear riddle his body, his muscles pulled tight, and his chest squeezed shut. He flinched and fought nausea before shaking his head hard. 'Keep it together,' he forced his mind out of the images. 

"I can do this," He whispered to nobody in particular, before squaring his shoulders and stepping onto the path that would lead him to the School he’d left behind. He had done the same to the Wizarding world. Never did he like to be the center of attention, that didn’t magically change after defeating a dark lord.

His friends didn’t agree but understood, when two months after the war, Harry fragmented from being pulled in all possible directions by a ministry that had never really cared for him more then they cared for his name. The parties he hated, the speeches he was forced to give, a life he never chose to live. After the Malfoy trial, where he spoke up for them secretly, he packed a few belongings and under the security of his invisibility cape and the night sky, he slipped away from it all.

He had kept a minimum of contact with Ron and Hermione. He couldn’t get it over his heart to not speak to them. He called them every few months to tell them he was alive and well. Making sure to keep it casual and to the minimum, as not to reveal his location. So, when three weeks ago a tired brown barn-owl crashed against his bedroom window in his small apartment in Barcelona, a Hogwarts letter in its clutches, Harry was more than a _little_ startled. It had taken him a week to open it, and another three days before he read it. 

He had been invited back to finish his education together with his peers when the school began again in September. At first, he discarded it without another thought. There was no way he would willingly go back to that place. No matter how much he missed his friends and use of magic. However, after a lengthy phone call with Ron and Hermione, doubt had clutched to him like a baby kneazle. Hermione was right. He’d never had a regular school year in his life. Didn't he want to try at least to have a good one? One year without mysteries or pending doom of war yet to be fought? He didn’t know if it was how she had said it or if it merely had hit a snare, but something had clicked.

In the end, it still had taken all his resolves to apparate outside the gates of Hogwarts. Groaning, Harry threw a brown leather muggle rug sack carelessly over his back and moved towards the gates. They had changed, taller and broader with a stone banner perched on top. Harry focused on the text and snorted. The Latin school motto cast in iron against the stone;

_Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus_

"Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon. No shit Sherlock," Harry said. Reading that name brought a wave of unresolved feelings forth. He closed his eyes, and his mind flashed to the last time he'd seen Malfoy. To when the fear in his grey eyes burned like the Fiendfyre around them, to when Harry grabbed onto his hand and forcefully pulled him onto the broom. To when Malfoys heart had slammed so hard against his chest, Harry had felt it against his spine. After being sprit out into the hallway, their eyes locked. Steal grey against cursed green for no more than a mere second, but it had been enough. Harry had seen the sorrow and desperation storming to the surface. Malfoy grabbed his hand and squeezed it so fast it almost hadn’t happened. “You will beat him,” He whispered before running down the hallway.

Idly tracing his ribs with his fingers, he'd never felt stronger arms around him, for weeks his sides had supported two bands of dark bruises shaped like Malfoy's arms. Harrys resolve strengthened and took another deep breath. He had no idea who would be coming back for this particular extra year, but one thing Harry knew for sure.

 _‘This year would be different, and he would be different,’_ Harry thought. He crossed the gate, feeling the wards lick over him like water, accepting him. “No turning back now,” he whispered striding to the open doors.

 

 

 

 _'Well, this is the punishment for waiting until the last moment,’_  Harry thought as he pulled the door to the great hall open and all eyes turned to him. The silence that fell over the room was instant suffocation. Harry felt his hands ball involuntary as panic blossomed alive in his chest. Frantic he looked around, his eyes landing on Hermione waiting at the far end of the room. Their gaze crossed and she became the lifeline he never knew needed, his whole body zoomed in on her. Hermione's eyes widened, and her smile broke like sunlight. “Harry!” she yelled and propelled forwards. With big strides he toppled towards her, ignoring the whispers igniting behind his back, arms open before he even reached her. He crashed into her and folded his arms around her tightly.

“Hermione, I missed you,” He whispered to the top of her head. _When did he become taller than she_ _?_

“You’re here, you came,” Hermione signed. His nose filled with the smell that is distinct Hermione and parts of his world felt right again. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder, making him look up into the face of a widely grinning Ron Weasley.

“Ron!” Harry smiled and one of his arms dislodged from Hermione to pull Ron close to them.

“About fucking time mate,” Ron said throwing himself in the hug.

Harry had no idea how long they stood there, but when Hermione pulled back, and wet eyes looked up to him, it felt all too short.

“Two years Harry!” she berated him, her hand slapped his chest. “Two years and you are late.” Flustered, she held up two digits into his face. “Common, Headmistress McGonagall is about to take the stage. And I don't know about you Harry, but I want to know what on earth she meant with new rules.”

Harry smiled as Hermione grabbed his hand and all but dragged him towards the eight years standing next to the first. Ron's laugh hummed from behind them helping to keep the residues of panic held at bay, by the warmth of his hand in Hermione's, and the sound of Ron at his back. Harry felt more confident about his decision to return to Hogwarts and the Wizarding world, at least until he came to a stop and his eyes found a mob of silver-white hair among the returning students. 

His hair so long it reached the bottom of his spine, shoulders low, his tense back turned to him. None of the Malfoy grace he was used to seeing. Hermione tugged at him and nodded to look at the stage were now McGonagall stood, sorting hat in one hand, a statue of a big white dragon in the other.

**Author's Note:**

> A short first chapter because it fitted the flow. The next ones will be longer. Let me know what you think! Good or bad, it's all welcome.


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